* If you cannot find Chinese bitter almonds you can use few drops of almond essence. If you hate the almond flavour you can leave the bitter almond or essence out.

Agar strips

*Agar strips are easily available in most Oriental grocery stores. You can also use agar powder but I am not sure how much you’ll need to set the liquid to a medium soft solid.

Method:

Put both almonds together in a bowl and soak with 1 cup warm water for 2 – 3 hours to soften them. I use the soaking water later, it has a nice almondy fragrance.

Soak agar strips with some water for about 20 – 30 min. Drain off the water and chop the agar into small pieces. Soaking and chopping the agar strips will dissolve easier when heated.

Put almonds, the soaking water and the remaining 3 cups of water together in a liquidiser and blitz for about 1 minute or till the almonds are pulverised to very fine pulp. If you use a small liquidiser cup, blend in two batches. Filter the almond milk with a muslin or cotton bag see soy milk making or a large piece of muslin. Squeeze out as much milk as you can. The remaining pulp should be quite dry. You can throw it away or use to make cake or add to bread mix. I have a cake recipe to use this pulp. See recipe later.

Put the almond milk and soy milk in a pan, add soaked agar. Heat and stir till agar has completely melted (when you don’t see any more translucent agar strips).

Sweeten with enough sugar, stir to dissolve. Pass the mixture through a sieve if you like to ensure the mixture is without any unwanted solids.

Pour mixture into containers. Can use small pudding containers, jelly moulds or two larger rectangular/square boxes ( I used plastic lunch box). Remove any froth/bubbles floating on top. The almond tofu will set when cooled to room temperature.

Ingredients:
7 ounces coconut cream (I used Savoy brand. I tend to use Savoy for desserts and Chaokoh or Mae Ploy for curries)
1 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
pandan extract (The amount varies depending on the brand you use and the viscosity and potency of the extract.)
8 ounces tapioca starch
5 large eggs
1 package (2 1/2 teaspoons) single-acting baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix coconut cream, sugar and salt in a microwave safe container. Microwave about 30 seconds to a minute. Stir to dissolve sugar. Add the pandan extract and mix well. You do not want the coconut cream to boil~!
3. With a wooden spoon, slowly and gently stir together tapioca, eggs and baking powder. (I read that over mixing interferes with the development of the desired honeycomb tunneling.)
4. Put a 9×9 square baking pan in the oven.
5. Add the coconut-sugar mixture to the egg-tapioca mixture and gently fold everything togther. (Maybe let the batter sit for 20 minutes)
6. Take the baking pan out of the oven and spray with cooking spray. Spread the mixture in the pan and bake in oven about 30 minutes. (Do not open the oven door.)